Acidophilus product and process of producing the same



Patented Dec. 25, 1934 Y 1,985,490

ACIDOPHILUS PRODUCT AND PROCESS F PRODUCING THE SAME Stewart M. Farr, Genesee Depot, Wis., assignor to Brook Hill Farm Incorporated, Genesee Depot,

Wis., a=corporation of Wisconsin No Drawing. Application September 28, 1931, Serial No. 565,701

Claims. (CI. 9911) The invention relates to acidophilus products bation has been pasteurized or heated well below and to methods of producing the same. a sterilizing temperature it has been found that B. acidophilus are now recognized as of definite the longevity of B. acidophilus when allowed to therapeutic value when implanted and allowed incubate therein is very uncertain and my ex- 5 to proliferate in the human intestine. Milk in periments seem to indicate that a certain amount 5 which bacilli acidophilus have been allowed to of heat treatment is necessary not only to'destroy incubate forming a sour milk product has been undesirable bacteria but to actually change the used and acidophilus bacilli have also been mixed chemical composition of the milk 50 as to.imwith sweet milk to form a beverage though they prove the media in which the bacilli acidophilus may be mixed with other ingredients other than may proliferate and in order to bring this about milk to form beverages. After the production I have found that when the main body of milk of any of these beverages on a commercial scale is heated to just below boiling and mixed with a as in a laboratory or plant where they may be small amount of evaporated milk that a suitable produced under themost favorable sanitary conbase for B. acidophilus is obtained. To particuditions and under expert supervision the problarize, for example, two hundred and seventy lem of distribution of the finished product arises gallons f m is Placed i an tin n and in this connection the longevity of the aciand to this is added thirty gallons of evaporated dophilus bacilliin the product becomes important milk mixture formed of evaporated milk mixed in order that the product may reach the ultimate with a suflicient quantity of water so that this consumer while the acidophilus bacilli are in a mixture has the same composition as whole milk 20 viable condition. The object of the present inwhich usually required equal amounts of water vention is to provide certain improvements in and evaporated milk. This evaporated milk mixthe manufacture of acidophilus products or ture constitutes ten percent of the tank contents beverages whereby the longevity of the bacilli are of which five per cent is evaporated milk. The

assured and in this the invention deals with fat content of this milk'mixture may be so ad- 25 improvements in the preparation of the so-called. justed that the final product will contain two acidophilus milk, a sour milk product, in the percent or any other desired amount. This'milk preparation of sweet acidophilus milk or other is then heated and agitated or stirred until the beverages containing B. acidophilus. temperature isjust below the boiling point and The invention further consists in the several is held at this temperature for about one and 30 steps of the process hereinafter set forth and one half hours. This temperature may be about more particularly defined by claims at the con- 210 Fahrenheit when measured at sea level, and clusion hereof. correspondingly varied in localities above or be- In the making of a sour milk product conlow sea level. After this heating step the milk is taining bacilli acidophilus it has been proposed allowed to cool to about 100 Fahrenheit and to heat the milk, into which the culture is to be inoculated with B. acidophilus. One pint of B. introduced, to a sterilizing temperatureto comacidophilus culture is used to each one hundred pletely sterilize the milk; Such a procedure not gallons of milk. The contents of the tank are nly quires sp i l nk d p re equipallowed to incubate until the milk attains an.

ment which are not ordinarily possessed by acidity of approximately 375% (lactic). It is 40 dairies but also has the decided disadvantages then cooled to"70 Fahrenheit and bottled. When of heating the base of the beverage so high that milk alone has been heated to just below boiling the flavor of the milk thus treated is appreciably and inoculated with B. acidophilus it has been affected and imparts a burnt taste to the product. found that the average number of living B. acid- While my work in the production of acidophilus ophilus after ten days is far below that of the 4.)

products has shown that it is desirable to render "cultural base produced as outlined above. For the milk as free of objectionable bacteria in the example, in tests'on ten tanks, without the evapovegetative stage as possible, and it is thus derated milk the average number of living B. acidsirable to heat the milk for this purpose, in the ophilus was fifty-three million after ten days v actual production of acidophilus-milk, as now while for the milk prepared with evaporated milk, 50

being carried out on a commercial scale, the milk the average in test on ten tanks was five hundred has not been heated to a sterilizingtemperature and fifty-three million living B. acidophilus after and for the reasons above pointed out it is not ten days. Th he longevity f ld philu desirable to do so. However, in the production in the, milk prepared according to the present of acidophilus milk'where the milk before incuprocess was ten times or one thousand per cent 50 greater than that prepared in the usual manner. While evaporated milk is milk that has been highly heated, the amount of this that is added is so small compared to the total beverage or cultural base that the flavor of the beverage is not impaired.

For making sweet acidophilus milk I proceed in the same manner as making the 'sour milk product above described except that I prefer to use skim milk to which the evaporated milk is added and heated as before to a temperature slightly below boiling and then allowed to cool to about 100 Fahrenheit and inoculated with B. acidophilus. However, in this instance the incubation is allowed to proceed until the maximum safe acidity is reached. This means an acidity in which the bacteria are not rapidly killed. It varies with different strains of B. acidophilus but the range is generally between 1.2% and 2% (lactic). Thus in this instance I produce acidophilus milk of a higher concentration than that first described. The milk thus produced is not cooled after incubation but is preferably agitated to obtain a smooth and uniform consistency and is then run through a high speed centrifuge at a rate required to separate the milk solids from the whey so that the recovered milk solids will be partially dry and contain for example approximately thirty to sixty per cent moisture and preferably forty per cent moisture. It is found that the recovered milk solids corrtain essentially all of the bacteria of the milk from which it is obtained, or about ten times the number per gram as the milk. By allowing the milk to incubate to the acidity about set forth it is possible to get a concentration of B. acidophilus in the milk solids between ten and thirtybillion per gram. This curd or concentrate is then neutralized to substantially a hydrogen ion concentration of six and eight tenths (6.8) with calcium hydroxide or other suitable alkali,

The bacteria impregnated curd produced as above described is incorporated into sweet milk either by grinding or homogenizing, in proportions to bring the B. acidophilus content of the sweet milk sufilciently high so that it can be used for therapeutic purposes. At the present time it is recognized that the viable B. acidophilus milk should not be below one hundred (100) million per c. c. It then would require ten grams of this concentrate per quart of sweet milk to give a viable count of one hundred to three hundred million per cubic centimeter.

The curd concentrate may be incorporated as above described in beverages other than sweet milk, for example, orange juice or beer.

From the above it will be. noted that when making sweet acidophilus milk I use milk as a base in which the culture is allowed to multiply and produce a greater concentration of bacteria therein than in making the sour milk product, yet in each instance this base has the evaporated milk added to it and is heat treated, this evaporated milk when combined with the main body of the milk producing a base which has been found to increase the longevity of the B. acidophilus incubated therein.

I desire it to be understood that this invention is not to be limited to specific details heretofore described except in so far as such limitations are included in the claims.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. The method of preparing an incubating medium for B. acidophilus which consists in adding to the milk in which the B. acidophilus are to be incubated a small amount of evaporated milk and heating this mixture to a temperature slightly below the boiling point, and thereafter cooling the milk thus treated to about 100 Fahrenheit before inoculation.

2. The method of preparing acidophilus milk which consists in adding to the milk base a small amount of evaporated milk, heating and agitating vso treated with a suitable culture of B. acidophilus allowing the milk so treated to incubate until an acidity of approximately .'75% (lactic) is obtained, cooling the sour milk product thus obtained to about 70 Fahrenheit and placing the product in containers which are thereafter sealed.

3. The method of preparing an incubating medium for B. acidophilus which consists in adding to the milkto be treated about of evaporated milk solution diluted to have substantially the same composition as whole milk, heating and agitating this mixture until the temperature attained is slightly below boiling, maintaining this temperature for about one and one-half hours and then cooling to about 100 Fahrenheit before inoculating with a suitable culture of B. acidophilus.

4. The method of making acidophilus beverages which consists of the steps of the process defined by claim 1, inoculation with B. acidophilus and allowing the incubation to proceed until an acidity of 1.2% to 2% (lactic) is reached, separating the curd from the whey so that the recovered milk solids will be partially dry and contain approximatcly all the bacteria produced by incubation, neutralizing the curd with a suitable alkali and then incorporating the bacteria impregnated curd in the beverage in proportions to bring the B.

acidophilus content thereof sufiiciently high so that it can be used for therapeutic purposes.

5. The method of making sweet acidophilus milk which consists of the steps of the process defined by claim 1, inoculation with B. acidophilus and allowing the incubation to proceed until an acidity of 1.2% to 2% (lactic) is reached, agitating the incubated milk to obtain a smooth and 

